A Sundance Festival First: Parity of Men, Women in Competition

By

Barbara Chai

Dec. 30, 2012 5:48 p.m. ET

The annual Sundance Film Festival, which will take place in Park City, Utah, from Jan. 17-27, will feature an even number of films by female and male directors in the U.S. Dramatic Competition category—a first for the festival, which in past years has had a smaller proportion of women.

The U.S. Dramatic Competition category is a roster of 16 feature films that will be considered for the festival's top prizes. Other competitive categories include World Dramatic, U.S. Documentary, World Documentary and Shorts.

ENLARGE

Director Lynn Shelton will make her third Sundance appearance.
Getty Images

Festival director
John Cooper
said the Sundance Institute has long supported women through its Sundance Labs and particularly its short-films program every year, but this is the first time there is parity in competition. He added that festival organizers, in selecting this year's crop of films, also placed an emphasis on stories they believed would resonate with audiences.

"When we look at some of the films that got programmed, in some ways what we're identifying is an immediacy or a fearlessness in the filmmakers," Mr. Cooper said.

Sundance is viewed as a key industry event for movie studios to strike distribution deals for sought-after films. But Mr. Cooper said that the festival, along with the wider independent-film industry, has become less focused on distribution deals and more on finding ways to reach audiences through a multitude of platforms.

For example, an independent film can raise funding through crowdfunding websites such as Kickstarter, and opt for distribution through digital platforms rather than traditional film studios.

Sundance in 2013 will also give more prominence to its Next category of films, which spotlights cutting-edge work.

"We're realizing the 'Next' films we're looking for all have an attitude about them that come from a very distinctive singular voice," said
Trevor Groth,
the festival's programming director.

Founded by actor
Robert Redford
in 1981, the Sundance Film Festival celebrates independent film and is known as a showcase for breakout movies by first-time filmmakers, as well as a venue for established filmmakers to premiere higher-profile films.

In total, the 2013 festival will present 119 feature films, 27 of those in competition. The festival received 12,146 submissions, including both feature films and shorts, a record number for Sundance. There will be 103 world premieres of feature films.

The U.S. Dramatic Competition will include films such as "Kill Your Darlings," starring Daniel Radcliffe, the star of the "Harry Potter" movie franchise, as a young Allen Ginsberg; "Touchy Feely," directed by Lynn Shelton in her third film appearance at Sundance; and "Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes," about a teenager who forges an unlikely bond with a young mother next door.

In the Premieres category, the slate includes "jOBS," the highly anticipated Steve Jobs biopic starring
Ashton Kutcher
and directed by
Joshua Michael Stern.
Also premiering will be Richard Linklater's "Before Midnight," a follow-up to his romantic dramas "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset," reuniting actors
Ethan Hawke
and
Julie Delpy
—their characters are now in their 40s, and in Greece. Korean director Park Chan-Wook will present his first English-language film, "Stoker," starring
Nicole Kidman
as a troubled mother who invites her dead husband's brother to stay with her and her suspicious daughter.

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